Ten Things Not to be Missed on Two Weeks of Holidays Overseas

* Thus justifying the absence of postings over the last two weeks.

1. Early mornings—for work purposes, play is a different matter.
2. Hot Melbourne weather. Snow is a much better alternative!
3. Involuntarily having to talk to the public. (They make the calls drop in—if we had to pick up the phone at work, no one ever would.)
4. Feelings of displacement. I must be a travelling soul, that moving makes me feel more at home than being at home. I must be an escaping soul.
5. The scary reminders that this year I will have to work out , and then write, my thesis. Actually, it's the working out that is the scary part.
6. The same routine.
7. News that only includes cricket and people being stabbed in Melbourne.
8. The neighbours burning stuff in the back yard 'til crazy-o'clock—making noise, and making the house smell.
9. Fighting development, talking about development.
10. The taken-for-grantedness of a good coffee.